Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.

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March 25, 2017

GREMLINS CEREAL

GREMLINS
CEREAL

Ralston

Chris Columbus got the
inspiration to for Gremlinsafter
hearing what sounded like a “platoon of mice” in his loft scurrying about. He
wrote the script as a show of his skills for potential employers. The idea to
actually make it a film didn’t happen until Steven
Spielberg got ahold of the script and felt it was the most original thing
he’d seen in a long time. Tapping Joe
Dante to direct and Warner Bros.
to produce the film along with his Amblin Entertainment,
the film was a horror-comedy centered around a family’s acquisition of a mogwai:
a cute, furry little creature. That is, as long as three rules were followed: 1)
don’t expose it to strong light, 2) don’t let it get wet, and 3) never feed it
after midnight. Of course, these rules get violated and a horde of ugly, savage
gremlins end up on the loose; terrorizing the small town of Kingston Falls. Gremlins opened on June 8, 1984 and
became a box office hit.

As part of the promotion for the
film, Ralston
licensed the right to make a cereal based on it. Gremlins Cereal came with
pieces in the shape of the film’s star, Gizmo (Howie Mandel), who
also graced the box and was featured in the commercial for it. Incidentally,
the commercial also starred Jonathan
Ward as one of the kids eating the cereal, who would go on to appear in a
Dante-directed Twilight Zonerevival
episode. With two proofs of purchase from the box and $9.95, people could send away for a plush Gizmo doll.
Each box also included one of 11 different collectible stickers. The cereal was
a limited edition and stayed on the shelves about as long as the film’s
original theatrical run.